“When I just opened it, it just had like all kinds of money, like 50s, 20s and like that type of stuff,” Max said.

Max found the bag on an evening walk in Exeter with his father, Guy Parenti. The bag was barely visible above the then-unmowed grass of Founder’s Park, but he spotted it and ran over to investigate.

“And then I heard him gasp, and he said, ‘Dad, look!’ And he ran over and opened it up, and I could see that it had a pretty good wad of cash in it,” Parenti said.

The bag did not carry any identification, so Max’s parents held onto it and turned it in to Exeter police the next morning.

“You have to, like, give it to the police so the person can have it back,” Max said.

Police traced the cash back to Puddlejumpers Children’s Shop, a nearby business.

“We were astonished,” said the business’s co-owner Dennis Smith.

Smith said he and his wife didn’t know the money was missing and are grateful that a good Samaritan was first to find it.

“We, of course, gave him a reward and a card and just wanted to return the message that it was appreciated and just a neat thing for him to have done,” Smith said.

Exeter police presented the reward to Max in person on Wednesday night.

“He met four of the officers and they gave him stickers and really made a big deal out of it, which is great,” Parenti said. “It’s just what you want to teach him at this age -- do the right thing and people appreciate that.”

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